Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to systems and methods for detecting truth utilizing biologic data. More specifically, the present invention relates to systems and methods for detecting truth utilizing biologic data observed during various time periods occurring prior and subsequent to the presentation of a stimulus to a subject and/or prior and subsequent to an action performed by the subject in response to the stimulus.
Within the field of neuroscience, it is a commonly accepted view that the brain sets the stage of behavior in a micro-temporal manner. The requisite brain-biologic correlates for cognitive behavior are functionally matched and sorted according to an evolving cognitive-brain archetype in fractions of a second. These micro-state neural networks, along with stimulus refinement and associative response, define and determine cognition. The reflections and correlates of “mind” are also to be found in the interleaved energies of the brain's orchestration of individual functional manifestation. In simpler terms, brain activation networks in the cerebral cortex repeatedly change the state of coordination among its constituent areas on a sub-second time scale to, in an ongoing manner, enable/inform one's conscious awareness and determine one's cognitive state. As such, alterations of brain activation networks yield functional changes in the cognitive state and hence the state of mind of the individual. These pre-cognitive changes in the brainwave activation of regional neural networks can be observed and/or recorded via changes in the specific brainwave activity to determine the individual's brainwave energy signature. The characteristics of the pre-cognitive aspects of one's biologic and brainwave energy signature is what ultimately informs/enables one's flow of consciousness and one's cognitive state.
Cognition is a term which has traditionally been used to refer to one's first person awareness of one's own flow of indwelling consciousness awareness of self and mind. As such one's cognitive state is understood to include diverse mental processes such as un-verbalized and verbalized thinking, conceiving, perceiving, reasoning, one's awareness of the truth and falsehood of information, and self-verbalizations. It also includes any class of mental “behavior” involving symbolizing, insight, expectancy, complex rule usage, intentionality, problem solving, and imagery. When one attends to one's cognitive state/flow of consciousness, one is then amenable to internal acknowledgment, critique, self-assessment as to one's conjectural accuracy and the level of accuracy of one's truthfulness in conveying knowledge and that of data presented by others, and subsequent mental self-talk, prior to any outwardly observable physiological response to it. Digital analysis of the electrical properties of human brainwave activity (cycle-per-second waveforms) provides greater specificity as to the functional correlates of the brain's pre-cognitive, cognitive, somatosensory, and higher order mental function (i.e., the electrophysiological substrate of one's flow of consciousness).
The pre-conscious, pre-cognitive, brain state is different from the conscious, self-aware cognitive state. Pre-cognitive brainwave activation changes that enable a resultant cognitive state are analyzable and identifiable prior to one's conscious awareness of their impact on one's flow of consciousness and cognitive state. As experimentally demonstrated and described by Libet, pre-cognitive changes may take up to one-and-a-half seconds to manifest without any awareness of such changes taking place by the indwelling consciousness of the individual (B. Libet, “Cerebral Processes that Distinguish Conscious Experience from Unconscious Mental Function.” In The Principles of Design and Operation of the Brain, John C. Eccles and Otto Creutzfeldt, Eds., Pontificiae Academiae Scientiarum Scripta Varia 78, Oct. 19-24, 1988, pp. 185-202).
Libet replicated the results of Deecke, Grozinger and Kornhuber, who quantified and isolated Electroencephalographic (“EEG”) brainwave changes enabling what was to be a spontaneous act of individual volition, i.e., flexing a finger (L. Deecke, B. Grozinger, H. H. Kornhuber, “Voluntary Finger Movements in Man: Cerebral Potentials and Theory.” Biological Cybernetics, 1976, 23, pp. 99-119). While the people in these studies consciously thought that they were instantly and spontaneously flexing their finger, their brains were observed to be building up the electrical potentials (pre-cognitively) that led to the finger flex for a time period ranging from one (1) second to one-and-a-half (1.5) seconds prior to the avowed spontaneous conscious execution of the finger flex.
When monitoring, analyzing, and utilizing biologic data (e.g., brainwave data, EEG data, electromyographic (“EMG”) data, electrocardiogram (“ECG”) data, galvanic skin response (“GSR”) data, thermal skin temperature change data, and heart rate variability data), there are three key transition points along the path whereby a stimulus presented to the central nervous system results in cognition and volitional action: EEG Stage 1—the pre-stimulus state of activation immediately prior to stimulus introduction; EEG Stage 2—the instant of stimulus presentation which produces an automatic cerebral cascade of related neural network activation; and EEG Stage 3—the elapsed time between the presentation of a stimulus and the subsequent behavioral response. In neuropsychology, EEG Stage 3 is considered to be an index of how fast the thinker can execute the mental operations needed by the task at hand.
Conventional EEG and Quantitative EEG (“qEEG”) methods and apparatus reference EEG energy in wide bands. Wide band (e.g., Delta, Theta, Alpha, and Beta) EEG methodology calculates energy output as follows. Delta is the average of the energy observed in the 0.5 Hz to 1 Hz and each of the 1 Hz through 4 Hz (i.e., 1 Hz, 2 Hz, 3 Hz, and 4 Hz) brainwave bands. Theta is the average of the energy observed in the 4 Hz through 8 Hz brainwave bands. Alpha is the average of the energy observed in the 8 Hz through 12 Hz brainwave bands. Beta is the average of the energy observed in the 13 Hz through 25 Hz brainwave bands. The Delta, Theta, Alpha, and Beta readings are all utilized as independent, standalone measures of EEG activity.
Additionally, wide band activity called Sensorimotor Rhythm (“SMR”) is the average of the energy observed in each of the 12 Hz through 15 Hz brainwave bands, and it is also used as an independent stand alone measure of EEG activity. It is known to monitor EEG in terms of the sensed amplitudes and percentages of alpha, theta, beta, delta, and SMR brainwave activity.